Chapter 241

Chapter 241: Rankings

There weren’t many things to pack. Most of what they were bringing were experiment reports. Since they could conduct the experiments directly on the island, there was naturally no need to wait to move the equipment back.

The little devils who claimed to uphold justice at least had some conscience—they didn’t destroy the experimental data. However, some of the experimental samples would likely be difficult to retrieve from their hands now.

No big deal—there were definitely ready-made ones at the Easter Division.

“Wifey’s heading off on a long trip again.”

Yiwen reluctantly hugged Mi Xiaoliu’s waist, her arms circling to the front to rub her stomach.

After being knocked out by anesthesia multiple times, she had more or less figured out the boundaries of what she could get away with.

Taking advantage was irresistible. It’s all Mi Xiaoliu’s fault—why be this cute? Don’t be this cute next time.

Counting it up, they’d officially been dating for just about a month. Even though they were attending the same school, why did it feel like a long-distance relationship?

Still, if the Black Element could be cured, then all would be well. No more accidents, please.

Yiwen pinched a piece of chocolate and fed it to her.

Mi Xiaoliu leaned over and took a bite.

But Yiwen didn’t remove her fingers from the chocolate—in fact, she pulled it back from Xiaoliu’s mouth, as if just letting her taste it.

Snatching food from Mi’s mouth.

Mi Xiaoliu turned her face to look at her.

No food-guarding? Looks like her rebellious phase had been cured by Heli.

Actually, the credit should go to the re-fitted Demon Eye Killer—blue or purple, it all got reined in as black.

Seeing the fine layer of chocolate now on her fingers, Yiwen popped them into her mouth without hesitation.

Quite sweet.

“This dumbass white-haired bitch!” Sasha fumed in rage.

“Dumbass white-haired bitch,” Mi Xiaoliu repeated after her.

Half-chewed chocolate fell out of Yiwen’s mouth.

Looks like Mi Xiaoliu’s rebellious phase wasn’t entirely over.

And it wasn’t just the shock of hearing Mi Xiaoliu curse—it was mainly that Yiwen couldn’t feel anything in her mouth anymore.

“Never Learns Her Lesson”

It’s fine. Not a loss.

……

……

They didn’t delay any further. Without even eating lunch, they immediately drove to the airport, leaving Ji Yueqiu behind to look after the house.

Fanzui City wasn’t a coastal area. If they wanted to travel by boat, they’d first have to take a plane.

Sounds odd—switching from plane to boat.

But their destination was a vast ocean. Boats were definitely much more practical than planes for moving around.

Same private jet as before. Mi Xiaoliu fell asleep the moment she hit the seat.

“Once you get the equipment, how long will it take you to cure the Black Element?” Okulet asked.

“I’m not sure. It might be fast, or I might not be able to cure it at all. Even if it goes smoothly, at least one or two days,” Heli answered.

“How confident are you?”

“Seventy percent.”

In the medical world, that was good enough.

No wonder she ranked among the top professors even within the Easter Division.

He closed his eyes to rest and said no more.

It was still the same plane, but this time there was an extra flight attendant.

Wearing a mask, her long hair tied up, dressed in a flight uniform. But her demeanor was less proper than Ji Yueqiu’s—nothing like a service staff member at all.

Etiquette and posture didn’t matter, though—as long as the service was good.

She didn’t sit in the usual flight attendant’s seat either. Instead, she sat in another row of empty seats and kept staring this way. The moment Mi Xiaoliu woke up, she pushed a cart with food and drinks over.

“Anything you feel like eating?”

Mi Xiaoliu looked at Heli.

“It’s free,” Heli said.

Only then did Mi Xiaoliu feel at ease taking a lunchbox.

“There’s a rest area for attendants on the upper level. It’s more comfortable to sleep lying down. The stairs are behind that cabinet door. If you want to sleep, you can go there. If you need anything, just call me.”

The flight attendant patted Mi Xiaoliu’s head and pushed the cart away.

She said that, but probably no one would actually treat her like a normal attendant.

Because as she left, she deliberately cast a glance at Heli with those signature blue eyes.

————————

Qu Yuehua, female, currently 45 years old. She once trained at the Wolf Fang Special Police Academy. Later, she was sentenced to life imprisonment for an unspecified crime. After performing well during twenty years of incarceration, her sentence was changed to a fixed term.

But in a state of complete blindness, it wasn’t exactly realistic to expect poor behavior either.

The above was what Isaac had just found out, mainly because the police had just issued a wanted notice—for a blind woman and the severed head of an elderly man. You could easily find it online.

Still insisting on breaking out of prison while blind—more inspiring than The Shawshank Redemption.

Twenty years seemed to have left little trace on her. Her figure and skin remained unchanged, at least from the visible lower half of her face, there wasn’t a single wrinkle to be seen.

Isaac and Jim stood like scolded elementary schoolers before her—not because she was their elder or teacher.

“Ma’am, we brought everything you asked for. Could you return our companion now?”

Why did Jim, who always slacked off, still earn Isaac’s approval? Just look at the idiot lying on the ground and you’d understand.

Without knowing anything about the other party’s background, he charged in without a word, only to be floored by a flurry of military-style punches and taken hostage.

Honestly, Isaac really wanted to abandon a teammate like that.

Qu Yuehua didn’t respond. She sat quietly on the steps and opened a canned drink. Her hands—callused and rough, inconsistent with her posture—cupped it as if drinking tea, savoring the flavor of a time over half a century past.

Compared to the one-mira-per-bottle drinks of that era, this drink’s taste and price both felt overly pretentious.

She had traded her low-quality prison uniform for a black short-sleeve shirt and cropped pants. The patterns had clearly faded—randomly taken from someone’s balcony. They even bought a pair of sunglasses along with it.

This entire outfit represented the value of the hostage at her feet. As for why they stole rather than bought it—it was mainly because two grown men were too embarrassed to purchase women’s clothing.

The blind woman put down the drink and slightly turned her face. Even with oily hair and wearing rough clothing, every movement still carried a ladylike grace.

Calm as a virgin.

What stood out was the straightness of her back and neck—a kind of beauty that many modern head-down phone addicts couldn’t achieve.

In contrast, the identity of the head she’d placed in her backpack was far more shocking—practically a demonic figure.

Even though only the head remained, it still retained the minimum signs of life. Before the backpack was zipped shut, he could even shift his murky gaze toward Isaac, making Jim scream in fright.

And the fact that Qu Yuehua carried him with her was like Perseus wielding the head of Medusa—an immense source of intimidation. This was the main reason Isaac didn’t dare resist and had kept compromising.

“I don’t know anything about medicine. The eyeball transplant technique you mentioned—I’ve never even heard of it. Even if it exists, it’s not something shady, unlicensed clinics could perform. The lab we were talking about is working on abilities-enhancing drugs, and it’s still stuck at the low-quality prototype stage…”

“Abilities-enhancing drugs?” Qu Yuehua was puzzled.

“A poison that gives someone temporary powers,” Isaac explained.

This woman’s logic was a little abnormal.

Why, upon hearing about a suspicious lab, would she think they could cure her blindness? Labs and hospitals weren’t the same thing.

Qu Yuehua said nothing, quietly digesting the information in his words.

Isaac thought he had offended her and, gritting his teeth, took out his off-brand phone—bought for several hundred mira—and operated it for a bit before handing it over.

“This is my phone. The information you’re looking for is in here. Do you want me to teach you how to use a smartphone?”

An object virtually worthless in today’s world, but still a significant concession.

He had painstakingly deleted his browser history and certain storage-hogging videos before handing it over.

“No need.”

That’s what she said, but she still took the phone. “No need” referred to not needing him to teach her how to use it.

So this blind woman actually intended to use a smartphone…

“Then… can we have our companion back now?”

Isaac watched her expression closely and gestured to Jim to prepare for a quick retreat. If she planned to kill the hostage, they would have to prioritize their own safety.

Jim gave him an “OK” sign.

Then he did a sliding tackle, aiming a preemptive kick at Qu Yuehua’s leg and pulling the informant she had pinned underfoot back to safety. The three of them rolled together to Isaac’s feet. At that moment, Jim felt like the coolest guy ever.

Jim, who never paid much attention in code-sign classes, had misinterpreted Isaac’s gesture as a signal to force a breakout.

What the hell?

Isaac’s heart skipped a beat, followed by a mix of emotions.

Was Jim saying they must never abandon a teammate, no matter what? What a pure-hearted guy. But wasn’t that exactly one of Uphold Justice’s founding ideals—never abandon, never give up?

He pulled out some paper shuriken from his bag, preparing to fight.

But Qu Yuehua didn’t get angry. She simply brushed the dust off her leg from Jim’s kick.

“You can leave now. Just don’t tell the police about me.”

Isaac let out a sigh of relief and quickly dragged Jim away.

Jim looked like he wanted to say something.

He had never seen Isaac this scared before.

Isaac just pushed the back of his head and only whispered after they had gone more than a hundred meters away: “That old man… isn’t someone we can afford to mess with.”

After they left, Qu Yuehua started to explore the smartphone in her hands.

She didn’t use her eyes, nor did she lower her head, yet it somehow seemed as though she could see.

The idiotic design with just two buttons annoyed her slightly, but fortunately, this kind of thing wasn’t difficult to use.

Isaac had already deleted everything related to Tian Xing Dao, but she had no interest in that childish little club anyway.

What caught her interest more was the automatically popped-up news headline at the top of the screen.

Not because the news was important—but simply because the screen could display news at all was intriguing.

A palm-sized object that even contained a browser—clearly modern people had phased out computers. It was hard to imagine what else they could do with this kind of technology.

Because of the man she’d casually tossed into her backpack, Isaac hadn’t dared pull any tricks. The materials Qu Yuehua was looking for were placed right on the phone’s home screen.

LV5 Rankings.

A ranking list published by the Federation according to their own assessments. It mostly listed only titles, few abilities were publicly disclosed.

There weren’t many specific details—the goal was to reassure the public and deter outside threats.

What was interesting was that even after the Little Demon King resigned, he still remained on the list.

She browsed through it. New Moon (Riels) wasn’t listed.

Qu Yuehua let out a cold laugh and looked at the new rankings, letting her “gaze” pause on one unfamiliar face.

Sixth place: The Silent One.

According to the record, this was a new entrant added during the update two days ago. There wasn’t much information on him either, but Tian Xing Dao had noted that he was suspected of having the ability to create a panacea-like miracle herb.

“Hmm…”

Qu Yuehua rubbed her eyes beneath her sunglasses.

Might as well go check out that suspicious lab first.

[Translator’s Note: Yiwen’s parents’ translated names in this translation so far are Raven and Riels, but I feel Ruiwen and Ryles might be a better translation of their names. I don’t want readers to be confused based on previous chapters, so I decided to keep their current names.]

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[Translator’s Note: See the index page for this Novel if you want to see the Amazon Link for the eBooks.]

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